An Alternative Look at Barstow, California

I don’t know why you have the previous article under “travel stories.” That isn’t a travel story; it’s a rant.

The author seems to be judging Barstow as merely a place to stop for gas while driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. He seems to resent even having to stop. This isn’t the best mindset when trying to experience a new place. “I don’t want to be here. I wish I didn’t have to stop. But I guess I might as well write a travel story about this place.” Yeah, right. That’s really going to produce a travel story that will give people a valid idea of what the place is like.

Anybody who’s idea of civilization is LA, and who’s idea of entertainment is Las Vegas, is a very poor choice to write a travel story about anywhere other than LA or Vegas. He has seemed to grasp one point, though: Barstow isn’t for people who want LA-style civilization or Vegas-style entertainment.

You know, I’ve only heard church bells chime from my hotel in two places: Amsterdam and Barstow (All right, in Barstow it was from my motel, not my hotel). Does he know that? No, he just cares that he can’t get NPR. (Why’s he listening to NPR, anyway? It doesn’t seem to have broadened his horizons any. It doesn’t seem to have made him any more tolerant of others, more able to see through other people’s eyes, more able to appreciate things that are different from his usual world.)

Besides, you don’t measure civilization in Barstow by being able to listen to NPR. The measure of civilization in Barstow is that, when my van was overheating, there was not only a repair shop, there was also a fast-food franchise with a playland where my wife and children could wait in the air conditioning while the van was being repaired (No, my wife doesn’t like to play in the playland. It’s for the children, not my wife, but she benefits greatly from it by not having to handle two cranky, bored, overheated kids).

Barstow isn’t for people who need to be entertained, or for people who need to listen to their radio station in order to make it through the day.
Barstow is for:

people who value and appreciate air that is actually transparent.

Barstow is not for people who just want to get to Las Vegas. Barstow is for people who appreciate clean air, the desert, small towns, solitude, and/or Route 66.

Others are welcome to just keep driving.

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